The New York Historical
Museum · Upper West Side ·
Museum & library exploring NY & national history, Tiffany lamps
Museum & library exploring NY & national history, Tiffany lamps
"At the New-York Historical Society I encountered The Gay Harlem Renaissance, which traces the contributions of queer Black artists and writers—figures like Alain Locke, Langston Hughes, and Bessie Smith—through photographs, documents, music, and more (on view through March 8, 2026); chief historian George Chauncey emphasizes that the show makes a case for Harlem as perhaps the most gay-friendly neighborhood in early 20th-century New York. The museum is also running The New York Sari, examining how South Asian women and their fashions have influenced New York culture from the Gilded Age onward (on view through April 26, 2026)." - Charlie Hobbs
"Founded in 1804 as New York City’s first museum, this institution now houses around 1.6 million works, from Hudson River School paintings and watercolors to George Washington’s bed from Valley Forge. Recent exhibitions explore life in the city past and present—think a celebration of the city’s domesticated animal inhabitants (Pets and the City)—and, located right next to the American Museum of Natural History, it makes a solid, smaller stopover if you’re in the neighborhood." - Charlie Hobbs, Andrea Whittle
"The institution — rebranded from its older styling and described as the city's oldest museum — has relaunched its lobby restaurant after several recent operators. The current relaunch followed a less-than-two-year run under Brooklyn’s Oberon Group (which has since shifted focus to a museum project at the New Museum) and the July 2023 closure of two Stephen Starr concepts, Storico and the attached Parliament coffee bar, after Constellation Culinary Group announced it was moving on. The restaurant retains its 2023 name as an homage to Clara Driscoll (1861–1944); "For years, Driscoll and her team of ‘Tiffany Girls’ worked in anonymity," reads the website, until the museum discovered her role behind many of the famous glass shades." - Melissa McCart
"The shop features historic-art-inspired textiles such as tea towels printed with John James Audubon’s songbirds and a table runner that reproduces a Louis C. Tiffany peacock design, bringing museum-quality illustration and decorative arts to everyday linens." - Jaya Saxena
"I often find the New-York Historical Society less crowded than the neighboring American Museum of Natural History; its exhibit of New York paintings and its Tiffany lamp collection are unrivaled." - Eater Staff
